


l" " "I 



THE JUNIOR 

HIGH SCHOOL 



A REPORT PREPARED BY A COM- 
MITTEE OF THE EDUCATIONAL 
COUNCIL OF THE IOWA STATE 
TEACHERS* ASSOCIATION 




Printed by 

The Iowa State Teachers' AssociatUHi 

1917 



"Che 
Junior High School 



A Report Prepared by 

a Committee of the Educational Council 

of the Iowa State Teachers' 

^Association 

November, 1917 




COMMITTEE 



Frank L. Smart, Chairman 
Davenport 

E. E. Lewis, Iowa City H. P. Smith, Newton 

John E. Foster, Des Moines M. R. Fayram, Des Moines 

Alice Dilley, Malvern Mabel Horner, Leon 

H. E. Ilsley, Spirit Lake D. O. Wilson, E^rlham 

C. E. Humphrey, Denison J. E. Cougill, Nevada 



\^'^'A 



A.'^ 



FOREWORD 



The committee in charge of the preparation of this report have 
not attempted to make it exhaustive. They have selected a few 
of the more important phases of the junior high school movement 
and have endeavored to set these forth clearly and briefly. 

At the first and only meeting of the committee as a whole it was 
decided tO' treat the subject under the following nine heads : 
I. Definition. 

II. Evolution. 

III. Advantages and Disadvantages. 

IV. Organization and Administration. 
V V. Curriculum. 

VI. ^Qualifications of Teachers. 
VII. Cost. 
VIII. The Junior High School in Iowa. 
IX. Bibliography. 

These divisions of the subject were assigned to the members of 
the committee as follows : 
I. Mr. Smart. 
II. Prof. Lewis. 

III. Mr. Foster and Miss Horner.* 

IV. Mr. Smith, Mr. Ilsley, and Miss Dilley. 
V. Prof. Lewis and Mr. Cougill. 

VI. Mr. Wilson. 
VII. Mr. Fayram. 
VIII. Mr. Humphrey. 

IX. Mr. Smart. 

Though a rough outline of the subject was gone over in the 
whole committee in order that each member might learn the meets 
and bounds of his allotment in a general way and thereby avoid 
trespassing, yet some overlapping was inevitable where so many 
were working without further conference. No effort has been 
made toward harmonizing any difference of opinions that may 
appear. Each member is responsible for his own part and the 
opinions voiced therein. It is hoped that the report will assist in 
the solution of a problem that is rapidly becoming an important 
one in Iowa school administration. 



I. DEFINITION 

The junior high school is yet to a large extent in the ex- 
perimental stage. For this reason no really satisfactorv^ definition 
has been or can at this time be formulated. Several attempts at 
defining it have been made but they have been statements of what 
the school should accomplish rath€r than definitions. All these 
attempts reflect the formulator's personal opinion and experiences 
rather than a consensus of opinion. However, all who have 
attempted definitions are fairly w^ell in accord on certain general 
characteristics as the quotations herein following will show. 

Briggs, in the Report of the United States Commissioner of 
Education, 19 14, Vol. I, page 137, defines the junior high school as 
"an organization of grades seven and eight or seven to nine to pro- 
vide by various means for individual differences, especially by 
an earlier introduction of prevocational work and of subjects 
usually taught in the high school." 

Stetson in the Kentucky High School Quarterly, July, 19 15, 
page 17, says the junior high school is a ''definite constructive 
attempt to make the school serve the com.munity by bridging the 
gap between the grammar grades and the high school by offering 
some form of prevocational work to those who can never attend 
high school and through its ability to give them more vital and 
wider interests." 

According to Wiles in a monograph entitled The Junior High 
School, Heath & Co., 1916, *'a junior high school is a school made 
up of the upper grades (usually the seventh and eighth) of the 
elementary school and the lowest grade (the ninth) of the 
secondar)^ school, and organized after the general plan of the 
secondary school as regards curriculum, nature, and method of 
the recitation, instruction, and supervision." 

Horn in writing of the junior high school in Houston, Texas, 
in The Elementary School Journal, October, 1915, page 92, de- 
clares ''the junior high school is not an elementary school. Neither 
is it a high school. Neither is it a sort of a mixture of the two in 
equal proportions. If it is in reality an institution wortliy of its 
place in our educational economy, it is an institution which is 



— 4 — 

neither an elemental"}^ school nor a high school, but a provision 
for the needs of those children for which neither of the older in- 
stitutions made suitable provision. It partakes to some extent of 
the nature of each, but it is essentiall}^ different from either." 

Johnston in Educational Administration and Supervision, Sep- 
tember, 1916, page 147, gives the following: 
. "Defining the junior high school in the narrow but more nearly 
correct sense as a special institution, we should say that, in intent 
it is that portion or department of the public school system above 
the sixth elementary grade, including the seventh and eighth, and 
usually the ninth also, which is organized under a distinctive in- 
ternal management with a special principal and teaching staff, or 
under a six-year secondary school department divided into a 
junior and a senior high school of three years each, with one 
general manag'ement. Such a school in these first three years, 
provides for departmental teaching, partially differentiated cur- 
riculums, for prevocational instruction and for systems of educa- 
tional advice and guidance and for supervised study. No defini- 
tion which merely says it is an institution which shifts the seventh 
and eighth grade boys from elementary school to high school prop- 
erl}" represents the ideal of this school." 

Again in an editorial in the same journal for April, 1917, page 
241, he says: "Junior high schools have some or all of the fol- 
lowing characteristics : special buildings, libraries, assembly halls, 
study halls, auditoriums, gymnasiums, laboratories, print-shops, 
music rooms, etc. ; liberal entrance requirements based on physio- 
logical and psychological ages and upon sociological considera- 
tions ; vocational and character guidance and advice ; supervised 
study ; longer school day ; partial and well-designed curriculum 
differentiation on two bases (psychological and vocational) ; pupil 
groups divided with reference to their different curriculum re- 
quirements ; clearly and continuously correlated courses ; the center 
of a Three-Cycle Plan with its breathing, readjustment, and finish- 
ing places ; preindustrial and prevocational training ; promotion 
b}^ courses ; partial and progressive departmental teaching ; more 
individualized work ; 'general courses' in science and mathe- 
matics ; modern languages taught by the natural method and be- 



gun in the seventh g'rade ; seventh grade start, corresponding more 
nearly to pubescent development in pupils ; lengthening of the 
school day, school week, and school year ; differentiated (from ele- 
mentary school) social center function; special text-books; special 
administration; college or normal graduates for teachers; higher 
salaries for teachers ; new 'units ;' new class periods ; and a liberal 
range of electives." 

If we were asked to name seven things that will characterize 
the junior. high school of the future the list would be about as 
follows : 

1. It will include grades seven, eight, and nine. 

2. It will have modified (?) departmental teaching. 

3. It will have supervised study. 

4. Promotion will be by subject. 

5. It will offer differentiated courses. 

6. It will not be housed with the grades below. 

7. It will fuse perfectly into the grades below and the senior 
high school above. 



11. EVOLUTION OF THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

This section of the report is devoted to a discussion of the fol- 
lowing points : Beginnings of the six-year high school idea ; the 
Boston Latin-grammar school, 1635, ^ six-year secondary school ; 
the Academy in 1743, a six-year secondary school; Boston junior 
high school, 1821 ; the idea of six-year secondary schools in for- 
eign countries; lack of distinction between elementary and sec- 
ondary education in America ; recent progress in establishing 
six-year high school courses; report of standing committee of the 
National Education Association on six-year courses ; growth of 
departmental teaching and differentiated courses ; high school sub- 
jects in the seventh and eighth grades ; prevocational education 
and the junior high school; number of junior high schools, 1914; 
probable number of junior high schools, September, 19 17. 

I. BEGINNINGS OF THE SIX-YEAR HIGH SCHOOL IDEA 

The movement for the establishment of junior or intermediate 
high schools as a part of a six-year program of secondary educa- 
tion is a development in connection with approximately 300 
of the 12,000 high schools in the United States. The origin 
of the movement cannot be exactly stated. Junior high 
schools are created to do different things, according to the 
whim, educational philosophy, or interests of the superintendent 
and other leaders of the community. As a growing institution, 
with few traditions, the lines of its development are vaguely de- 
fined. It does not stand for much that is new in education, but 
rather borrows ideas from the high school, from the prevocational 
school, the departmental grammar school, the elementary indus- 
trial school, and the original secondary schools of, this country. 
■ The typical American elementary school of today consists of 
eight grades and carries the average pupil from the age of six or 
seven to the age of fourteen. The four-year high school suc- 
ceeds the elementary school and builds on it. Too frequently it 
is assumed that this conventional type of organization was de- 
signed years ago at the beginning of the school system, for a great 
educational purpose. The history of American education, on the 
contrary, clearly shows that the eight-four plan is a somewhat 



— 1 — 

accidental development of the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
and that the idea of a six-year high school is as old as secondary 
education itself. 

2. THE LATIN-GRAMMAR SCHOOL WAS A SIX-YEAR SCHOOL 

The early Latin-grammar schools of New England were, for 
the most part, six-year schools, maintaining preparatory classes 
in which attention was given to the needs of children between 'the 
ages of ten or eleven and fourteen. Brown points out that the 
boys' Latin school course must have been, altogether, about six or 
seven years in length. Frequently, grammar school masters ob- 
jected to teaching children their A, B, C's. They wanted the 
children prepared before they came to the Latin-grammar schools. 
For this purpose, sometimes a special teacher was attached to the 
Latin-grammar school. The Latin-grammar school of colonial 
days was in fact a six-year secondary school preparing for college. 

3. THE ACADEMY A SIX-YEAR SCHOOL 

In 1743 Benjamin Franklin sketched a plan for the establish- 
ment of an English academy. Franklin would gladly have made 
this an English school, pure and simple. But he yielded tO' men 
of wealth and learning, whose co-operation was needed, and in- 
cluded in the course of study ancient and foreign language. 
Among other things Franklin proposed a course of study in 
English for a school of six classes. One of his recommendations 
was that pupils should have learned to read and write before 
entering this school. This was to be the only requirement for 
admission, providing the child was ten years of age or over. In 
the lowest class, children were to study the rules of English gram- 
mar, orthography, and short pieces of classical literature. When 
the meaning had been mastered, attention should be devoted to 
oral reading. In the third class, special attention was also to be 
given to rhetoric and the practice of speaking. In the establish- 
ment of Andover Academy in 1778, the donor, Samuel Phillips, 
proposed to lay the foundation of a public free school or academy. 
This school, according to Brown, admitted children at the age of 
nine or ten, and did not usually graduate them in less than five or 
six years. 



— s — 

4. BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL, 182I, A JUNIOR SCHOOL 

The first high school in America was designed to admit children 
at the age of twelve and to keep them for three years. This school 
was originally intended for boys not expecting to go to college. 
It was felt that a special school was needed to provide approxi- 
mately three years of training beyond that given in the elementary 
schools, and to maintain a practical curriculum to fit the child 
for active life at the age of fifteen or sixteen. The early 
Boston high school was vocational in intent. It was founded as 
a protest against the narrow classical curriculum of the Latin- 
grammar school and the academy. A quotation from the report 
giving the reasons for the establishment of this school shows this 
very clearly. The report reads : 

''A parent who' wishes to give his child an education that will 
fit him for active life, whether mercantile or mechanical, is under 
the necessity of giving him, a different education from any which 
our public schools can now furnish." 

In recommending the establishment of this school the Boston 
school committee unconsciously but very definitely outlined some 
of the chief characteristics of a present day junior high school. 
The recommendations read as if written yesterday by a proponent 
of the new school. The Boston school committee recommended : 

"That the term of time for pursuing the course of studies pro- 
posed (for the new high school) be three years., 

"That the school be divided into three classes, and one year be 
assigned to the studies in each class. 

"That the age of admission be not less than twelve years. 

"That it be required of every candidate, to quahfy him for ad- 
mission, that he be well acquainted with reading, writing, English 
grammar in all its branches, and arithmetic as far as simple pro- 
portion. 

"That it be required of the masters and ushers, as a necessary 
qualification, that they shall have been regularly educated at the 
university." 

It is evident from this that the junior high school of today 
resembles the first American high school in several particulars. 



— 9 — 

The Boston high school was built upon a six or seven-year ele- 
mentary school and admitted children about twelve years of age. 
It had a three-year course suited to the needs of children going 
out into life and not intending to enter college. Navigation, sur- 
veying, and mensuration in the Boston high school have been re- 
placed in the junior high school by manual training, agriculture, 
home economics, and the commercial branches. It required 
college-bred teachers. The work in mathematics was practical ; 
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, and prac- 
tical mensuration being taught in the same course. On the other 
hand, the first high school was unlike some of our junior high 
schools in as much as no foreign and ancient language was at- 
tempted and no effort was made to prepare pupils for the Latin- 
grammar school or for college. 

These few instances are sufficient to show that the first sec- 
ondary schools in this country, the Latin-grammar school and the 
academy, were primarily six-year secondary schools admitting 
children from ten to twelve years of age and graduating them 
from sixteen to eighteen, and that the first high school was an 
intermediate school similar in intent and design to the junior high 
school of today. 

5. IDEA OF SIX-YEAR SECONDARY SCHOOL IX FOREIGX COUXTRIES 

The idea of a six-year secondary school is also found in foreign 
countries. The German youth begins his secondary education at 
the age of nine or ten; the French youth at the age of ten or 
eleven. The typical secondary school of Germany has nine classes, 
although there are many communities not able to support more 
than six years of secondary school work. The typical secondary 
school of France has seven classes. The German and French 
secondary schools continue to follow the plan adopted over two 
centuries ago, of a six to nine-year course used in this country in 
the Latin-grammar schools and academies from the earliest times 
down to the middle of the nineteenth century. Having started 
on the longer period for secondary education, Germany and France 
never abandoned it. This is just the reverse of what happened 
in America. A\'e gradually abandoned the six-year plan during 



— 10 — 

the nineteenth century for the present eight-four plan. It is evi- 
dent from this that the current agitation for a six-year high 
school, with a junior and senior division, does not imitate 
European models but rather attempts to restore the organization 
that originally prevailed in secondary education in this country. 

6. LACK OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 

The fact is that in America until recently no sharp distinction 
has ever been successfully maintained between elementary and 
secondary education. Like Topsy, our school system just 
''growed." From the beginning until well past the middle of the 
nineteenth century, elementary schools were everywhere ungraded. 
The primary school consisted of six classes under the direction of 
one teacher. Gradually, school officials recognized an advantage 
in the plan of roughly classifying the pupils, and of placing the 
younger ones under a particular teacher well suited for that work, 
while the older ones were assigned to others. With that adoption 
of this plan, pupils were promoted from one teacher's room 
to another's. Upon the completion of the work of the last class 
of the primary school, pupils were permitted to enter upon their 
work in the grammar school. The work in the grammiar school 
frequently covered much of the work that is included in the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of the present school system. 
Upon the completion of the work in the grammar school, pupils 
were thought to be prepared for their life's work or for entrance 
into the secondary school. Gradually, the plan of full yearly 
grading was adopted, with separate rooms and teachers for the 
work of each year. In the southern states the prevailing plan 
became a seven-year elementary school, followed by a three or 
four-year high school. In the north, central, and western states, 
the eight-four plan was universally adopted. In New England 
states nine grades were included in the elementary school, pre- 
ceeding the four years of high school work. As late as 1872 the 
United States Commissioner of Education, John Eaton, wrote: 
''The line of demarcation between elementary and secondary and 
between secondary and superior is not very distinct if drawn at 



~n — 

all." In 1876 he said: "Not only are these general divisions of 
elementary, secondary, and superior far from definition, but the 
program of studies in each are without exact definition." 

7. RECENT PROGRESS IN ESTABLISHING SIX-YEAR HIGH SCHOOL 

COURSES 

In 1899 the Committee of Thirteen proposed a six-year high 
school course. In the same year the Committee on College En- 
trance Requirements of the National Education Association dis- 
cussed and approved a resolution favoring a ''unified six-year 
high school course beginning with the seventh grade." The com- 
mittee said, in part: 

"The most necessary and far-reaching reforms in secondary 
education must begin in the seventh and eighth grades. Educators 
agree that these grades must be enriched by eliminating non- 
essentials and adding new subjects formerly taught only in the 
high school. In our opinion these problems can be solved most 
quickly and surely by making the seventh and eighth grades part 
of the high school, under immediate direction of the high school 
principal. The seventh grade, rather than the ninth, is the natural 
turning point in the pupil's life. The transition from the ele- 
mentary to the secondary period may be made natural and easy 
by changing gradually from the one-teacher regime to the system 
of special teachers, thus avoiding the violent shock now commonly 
felt on entering the high school." 

About 1896 the city of Providence, Rhode Island, established a 
six-year course for pupils in the elementary school who had com- 
pleted the sixth grade and who showed tendencies toward strong 
scholarship. Such pupils were allowed to enter a six-year course 
in the high school building completing their grammar school 
studies and commencing certain high school studies. Similar six- 
year courses were organized during the next decade in Boston and 
Worcester, Massachusetts ; Newark, New Jersey ; Baltimore, 
Maryland; Richmond, Indiana; Nashville, Tennessee; Kalama- 
zoo, Saginaw, and Grand Rapids, J\Iichigan. 



^ 12 — 

8. REPORT OF STANDING COMMITTEE ON SIX- YEAR COURSES 

The transition point in the development of six-year courses 
came with the work of the Department of Secondary Education 
of the National Association in 1907, 1908, and 1909. This com- 
mittee was appointed in 1905. After a three-year session devoted 
to a consideration of arguments for and against six-year high 
school courses the committee reported in 1909 that sentiment for 
the six-six division was growing and that in twenty-two cities in 
twelve states the experiment of six-year courses was being tried. 
It concluded its report with these statements : 

''The experiment of six-year courses is being tried. The seventh 
and eighth years of school are now the battle-ground for improve- 
ment in courses of study. There is a conflict going on between 
the idea of advancing the individual child on the one hand and 
the stereotyped idea of mass promotion on the other. There is 
a general impression that the whole course of instruction, both 
elementary and secondary, should be simplified ; that differentia- 
tion of pupils' work should begin at the end of the sixth grade ; 
that time is now being wasted on non-essential and on imprac- 
ticable topics and that there should be greater flexibility in the 
promotion of pupils, departmental teaching, promotion by sub- 
jects, organized faculties of teachers for these years, and greater 
attention to individual needs by differentiated and practical arts 
courses. The six-and-six plan moves in the direction of better 
pedagogy and better economics." 

9. GROWTH OF DEPARTMENTAL TEACHING AND DIFFERENTIATED 

COURSES 

In 19 1 2 the United States Commissioner of Education reported 
that the movement for departmental teaching in the grammar 
grades was making considerable progress and that differentiated 
courses also were beginning to appear in the seventh and eighth 
grades. For example, in Bloomfield, New Jersey, two courses 
were offered : ( i ) a course preparatory to high school, which in- 
cluded the subjects of arithmetic and algebra, English and Latin, 
United States history, geography, physiology, penmanship, man- 
ual training or domestic art, and drawing; (2) a course pre- 



— 13 — 

paratory to a vocation, which included the subjects of arithmetic 
and business practice, English, United Stales history, geography, 
physiology, manual training, domiestic art, and drawing. In 
Buffalo, New York, in two schools an elementary course of six 
years had been introduced with an opportunity to specialize after 
the sixth school year along* three different lines, (i) regular, (2) 
industrial, (3) commercial. "This," the report adds, "is a step 
toward the six-and-six plan." 

The same report stated that there were thirty-one cities in the 
United States that had adpoted the six-and-six plan or some 
modification of it. 

10. HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS IN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADES 

In 1893 the Committee of Ten reported in favor of beginning 
the following studies below the high school : English literature, 
German or French, elementary algebra and concrete geometry, 
physical geography and natural science, biography and mythology, 
civil government and Greek and Roman history. Twenty years 
later, 19 14, the United States Commissioner of Education reported 
that eighty-three cities were offering algebra or foreign language 
in one or two of the years preceding the high school, sixty-four 
offered algebra, twent3^-one Latin, eighteen German, three French, 
and two Spanish. In some of these cities the upper grades had 
been segregated. Most of them had departmental teaching with 
or without segregation in the upper grades. The Commissioner 
reported that "in all of these cities only a few changes would be 
needed in organization or in curriculum to secure a number of the 
additional advantages claimed for the junior high school." How- 
ever, the report failed to state just what these schools needed to 
do in order to be classed as junior high schools. 

II. PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

In a number of cities, notably Boston, Seattle, and Louisville, 
some of the problems that the junior high school is created to 
solve have been partially solved by the establishment of what are 
known as prevocational schools or classes. The prevocational 
school is usually established to take care of over-aged and retarded 



— 14 — 

pupils, and students in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades who 
have developed a chronic dislike for school life. The prevoca- 
tional school is designed to give considerable attention to indi- 
vidual differences, and to train children in the practical arts. 
Such pupils are sometimes described as "anti-book." That is, 
they are "motor" minded rather than word minded. No critical 
psychological study has determined this grouping of children, 
nevertheless the common practice prevails of dividing the children 
who seem to be primarily interested in working with their hands 
from those primarily interested in working with their minds. 
This is a very unfortunate grouping. Again, the tendency in pre- 
vocational work is to ignore grading as far as possible. There are 
"classes" instead of grades. It is thought that prevocational 
training prolongs the school life of children and fits them some- 
what better to meet the conditions of occupational life. It is 
recognized that many cannot go to high school, and that most of 
the children will enter upon a gainfull pursuit before seventeen or 
eighteen years of age. It is apparent from this description that 
the prevocational school resembles the junior high school in many 
particulars. Each is designed to give a large amount of practical 
work in preparation for immediate social efficiency as a citizen 
and a worker. Each gives, also, more or less attention to indi- 
vidual differences, and in theory, at least, provides for loose grad- 
ing and rapid promotion. Although the term prevocational has 
been loosely used, and has been applied to widely different courses 
of study, there can be no' doubt that the above is a fair description 
of its general qualities, and that prevocational schools and classes, 
and junior high schools, are working along parallel, if not similar 
lines. Each is a modified form of general education, designed to 
better prepare youths in that transitional stage in the upper years 
of the elementary and the first years of the high school. 

12. NUMBER OF J.UNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN I914 

In 1914 Briggs reported to the United States Commissioner of 
Education 193 cities claiming junior high schools, but the same 
report allowed the claim of only fifty-seven of the 193. In this 
report Briggs attempted to establish standards for the junior high 



— 15 — 

school.' The following vague definition was arbitrarily applied to 
all school systems claiming such schools : 

"The junior or intermediate high school is defined as an organ- 
ization of grades seven and eight or eight and nine to provide by 
various means for individual differences, especially by an earlier 
introduction of prevocational work and on subjects usually taught 
in the high schools." 

In applying this definition to the 193 cities claiming junior high 
schools, Briggs said : 

"Many of the junior high schools, it must be said, are educa- 
tional accidents. The pupils of the first year in the high school 
have been segregated with those from the seventh and eighth 
grades in order to relieve congestion in the high school building ; 
in a large number of cases, a new high school building having been 
erected, the pupils of the upper grades, with or without those in 
the first year of the high school, are placed in the old building, 
which usually, besides being too good to be destroyed, is well 
adapted for such work." 

A study of junior high schools in 1914 shows that the tendency 
in twenty-six of the eighty-three cities reported by Briggs was 
toward a three-year senior high school. Los Angeles, California ; 
Grand Rapids and Jackson, Michigan ; Crookston, Minnesota ; 
Lincoln, Nebraska ; Columbus, Ohio ; Houston, Texas ; Salt Lake 
City, Utah, and nineteen other cities had actually estabHshed 
junior high schools comprising grades seven, eight, and nine. The 
remaining cities had various combinations under trial, including 
the six-two-four plan, the six-three-five plan, the six-two-three 
plan, and the seven-three-two plan. In one city, Macon, Georgia, 
a combination of grades five, six, and seven, was called a junior 
high school. Many of the schools were in reality departmental 
grammar schools under the name of a reorganized high school. 
The school in Newark, New Jersey, was an elementary industrial 
or prevocational school. One hundred and fourteen of the 193 
cities were excluded by Briggs because they did not satisfy the 
adopted definition. Most of these so-called reorganizations were 
purely administrative in character. The superintendent was con- 
fronted with a building problem and forced to re-group the grades. 



— 16 — 

In one city, for example, grades seven, eight, and nine were 
g'rouped in one building to relieve the pressure on other buildings, 
but the same course of study was maintained. That city did not 
have a junior high school if Briggs's standards are adopted. The 
junior high school is more than a re-grouping of grades. It is a 
pedagogical as well as an administrative device. 

13. PROBABLE NUMBER OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS, SEPTEMBER, I917 

All of the foregoing data with respect to the number of junior 
high schools are undoubtedly inaccurate. The reports to the 
Commissioner were incomplete, and vague standards were used in 
making lists of junior high schools. This is true also of later re- 
ports by Douglass and Bingaman. Douglass in 191 5 and Binga- 
man in 19 16 sent requests to state superintendents and cities 
throughout the United States asking for information concerning 
junior high schools. Douglass received data from sixty-eight 
cities, and Bingaman grom 271 cities claiming junior high schools. 
Neither of these men defined a jimior high school or gave stand- 
ards for its measurement. 

There are approximately 12,000 high schools in the United 
States. If the most liberal estimate of the number of junior high 
schools is accepted, say 300, it appears that less than two per cent 
of the high schools have attempted to reorganize their courses so 
as to co-ordinate them with courses in the elementary school. 
This is not a sweeping revolution when we recall the age of the 
movement and the remarkable array of expert educational theo- 
rists who have openly endorsed and advocated it. The junior 
high school movement is not, as Johnston asserts, "sweeping the 
country." Practice lags far behind theory in this as in so many 
other educational reforms. 



III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 

Much discussion of the junior high school has taken place in 
the last few years. The arguments for this new plan of school 
organization have been more vigorously set forth than the argu- 
ments against; the promoters of the junior high school idea have 
not been backward in making claims for it. Among its pro- 
ponents are the United States Commissioner of Education, many 
professors connected with departments and colleges of education, 
and a considerable number of superintendents of city school sys- 
tems. On the other hand, only a few prominent men in the edu- 
cational field have offered objections to the new plan. 

The following statement of advantages and disadvantages is an 
attempt to summarize the arguments for and against by reducing 
them to fundamental considerations. Individual writers are not 
cited, because none has a monopoly on any argument presented. 
In several cases, particularly apt expressions have been quoted, 
and these identify the authors. 

ADVANTAGES 
I. DEPARTMENTAL TEACHING 

The junior high school makes possible departmental teaching 
in the seventh and eighth grades, with teachers especially prepared 
for the various lines of work. This is a distinct advantage over 
the old plan of holding one teacher responsible for all of the sub- 
jects required in a grade. 

2. PROMOTION BY SUBJECTS 

Promotion by subjects, instead of by grades, is easily arranged) 
under the junior high school organization. It is better to give a 
child credit for what he has already done and allow him to advance 
in subjects already mastered, rather than make him repeat those 
subjects because he has failed in other lines. With one teacher 
for a group of children, it is difficult to promote by subjects. If 
a child fails in geography or history, for example, he must repeat 
the work of the whole year or semester, which is manifestly a 
great waste of time. Rural school pupils entering a graded school 



— 18— ■ 

\ 
can often make a better adjustment if opportunity is given for \ 
taking some work in one grade and the remainder in another 
grade. 

3. REORGANIZED CURRICULUM 

Junior high schools provide a reorganized curriculum which 
eliminates useless material and offers practical subject matter in 
accordance with the principles of motivation. The ordinary 
seventh and eighth grade curriculum is an '^historical accident," 
without physiological, pedagogical, or psychological justification. 
Moreover, the course of study for these grades is 'Vapid, weari- 
some, and futile ;" the endless duplication of English, history, and 
science indicates a chaotic state. Little progress is made by pupils 
of the seventh and eighth grades in the common branches, and 
therefore the present system is wasteful. 

4. BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN EIGHTH AND NINTH GRADES 

The junior high school bridges the gap between the eighth"^ 
grade and the high school, and by so doing keeps many children 
in school longer than they would otherwise attend. While still in 
the seventh or eighth grade, pupils become accustomed to high 
school ways of doing things and are prepared to approach the / 
ninth grade without any hesitation. -^ 

5. EARLY DIFFERENTIATION ON THE VOCATIONAL BASIS 

Early differentiation on the vocational basis is possible only 
under the junior high school plan. This point is urged most in- 
sistently. The thought in the minds of those who present this 
argument is that seventh grade children should be started on the 
line of work which they shall ultimately follow. It is maintained 
that the industrial needs of the nation demand such differentiation 
in the twelfth or thirteenth year of the child's life ; at that time a 
beginning should be made in his preparation for some specific 
calling. The high school at present is a failure as a selective and 
eliminating agency along- vocational lines. Every American child 
must be "exposed to both manual and mental activities and must 
experiment with both before anyone, including himself, can de- 
termine his natural aptitude." One of the most important func- 



— 19 — 

tions of the school is the distribution of population into vocations 
for which individuals are suited and prepared. The logical de- 
velopment of vocational work is possible only under the junior 
high school organization. 

6. RECOGXITIOX OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFEREXCES 

The individual differences in children may be taken into account 
more effectively in the junior high school by individual instruc- 
tion, super^dsed study, and vocational guidance. Opportunity is 
also given for other educational reforms, 

7. RECOGXITIOX OF MEXTAL AXD PHYSICAL CHAXGES 

The mental and physical changes in children about twelve years 
of age demand a different kind of treatment from that given in the 
earlier years. 

8. MORE TniE FOR COLLEGE PREPARATIOX' 

Four years is too short a time for preparation for college. 

DISADVAXTAGES 
I. EARLY DIFFEREXTIATIOX OX VOCATIOXAL BASIS UXDEMOCRATIC 

There is danger in crowding down the choice of life's work to 
the twelfth year of childhood. "The German system diff'erenti- 
ates from the outset — not on the basis of psychological needs, but 
on the basis of social castes." It is evident that the American 
system should avoid the danger of stratified society and that social 
groups should be developed that can understand each other be- 
cause they have a common basis of knowledge, ideals, and aspira- 
tions. In the first six years of school life there is not sufficient 
time for mastering the elements of race experience that should 
become the common property of all. It is necessary to devote a 
larg-e part of the time in the first eight years of school life to this 
purpose. The arts of school life are insufffcient, even though it 
be conceded that these arts or tools of knowledge may be mastered 
in the first six grades. There must be a "basis of common feel- 
ing, common thought, and common expression in an effective de- 
mocracy." Diff'erentiation on the vocational basis should be de- 
ferred at least until the ninth grade, and preferably until later. 



20 



2. EARLY DIFFERENTIATION ON VOCATIONAL BASIS AGAINST 
COMMON SENSE 

It is absurd to suppose that seventh and eighth grade boys and 
girls are capable of choosing their life work ; it is equally absurd 
to suppose that their teachers are capable of making the decision. 
Immaturity, ignorance, and lack of prophetic vision are against 
such procedure. It would be far better to leave the whole matter 
to chance than to attempt, at this early age, to determine the 
pupil's permanent occupation. Of a thousand boys twelve or 
thirteen years of age, how many can wisely decide upon a voca- 
tion ? Of the teachers of the thousand boys, how many have the 
judgment and foresight to divide their pupils into groups of future 
plasterers, physicians, farmers, painters, barbers, and lawyers? 
Predestination, personified, might well pause before such a task. 

3. DANGER IN SPECIALIZATION 

Specialization in teaching is carried to an extreme under the 
junior high school plan. Each teacher, being a specialist, tends 
to exaggerate the importance of his subject. The various in- 
terests are not well balanced. 

4. PUPILS FROM SMALLER SYSTEMS HANDICAPPED 

A handicap will be placed upon pupils coming from smaller 
systems where the present arrangement is retained. For ex- 
ample, a pupil completing the eighth grade work in a rural school 
or a small village school will find himself practically two years 
behind the pupils in the six-year high school to which he goes. 

5. PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 

The age of fourteen — not twelve — is the beginning of ado- 
lescence. Moreover, it is easy to overwork the argument that 
treatment of pre-adolescence and adolescent boys and girls should 
be decidedly different. Transition from childhood, through 
youth, to manhood is a gradual process. Fantastic schemes are 
sometimes suggested on the basis of physiological differences. 
For example, it is urged by one theorist that tall pupils should be 
"rushed" in their studies, and ''short, light ones" should be kept 
below grade, or in normal grade. 



— 21-- 

6. , MORE EXPENSIVE 

The expense of maintaining the junior high school is much 
greater than under the old plan, while the results are practically 
the same. 

7. ELECTIVE SYSTEM QUESTIONABLE 

Experience with the elective system in high school and college 
should make us hesitate to introduce it into the seventh and eighth 
grades. Children, ordinarily, do not elect subjects because of 
"natural aptitudes," "tastes," "capabilities," and the like, but for 
far different reasons. 

8. THE GAP NOT ELIMINATED 

The junior high school moves the gap between the eighth and 
ninth grades downward, so that it is between the sixth and seventh 
grades. It will be easier for the pupil of fourteen than the one of 
twelve to hurdle this gap. 

The above summary is necessarily very brief, but, it is believed, 
fairly comprehensive. The following general observations are 
deemed worthy of consideration : 

OBSERVATIONS 

I. NOT ALL ALLEGED ADVANTAGES DEPENDENT UPON JUNIOR 

HIGH SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 

One phase of this subject has apparently been overlooked in the 
discussion. Many of the benefits supposed to come from the 
junior high school plan are not necessarily dependent upon that 
form of organization. These advantages may be enjoyed by a 
school even though it is not formally organized according to the 
six-three-three or the six-two-four plan. For example, depart- 
mental teaching in seventh and eighth grades has been in opera- 
tion in many cities in Iowa for several years. Likewise, promo- 
tion by subjects instead of by years, the reorganization of the 
curriculum for seventh and eighth grades and the elimination of 
useless material, and supervised study, are all possible and practi- 
cable even though there is no so-called junior high school. In 
Iowa it has been the common practice to segregate these grades 
as far as practicable and designate such schools as grammar 



— 22 — 

schools, or grammar departments, practicing in them the methods 
and reforms suggested. 

The proponents of the new plan have claimed too much for it ; 
they have assumed that many advantages could come only with 
this form of school administration. The starting of a junior high 
school may provide a welcome opportunity to initiate educational 
reforms but it is not essential to them. 

2. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS OFTEN ESTABLISHED BECAUSE OF 
INCREASED ENROLLMENT 

Another phase of the question of advantages and disadvantages 
of junior high schools should be noted. The new type of adminis- 
tration has been initiated because of increase in school enrollment 
and consequent congestion and demand for additional room. 
With the great increase in high school enrollment, the capacity of 
high school buildings has been overtaxed ; the same has been true 
with regard to grade buildings. What more natural than to plan 
an arrangement whereby some pupils could be taken from the high 
school and some from the grade buildings, thus relieving both ex- 
tremes of the school system? In such cases a distinct advantage 
is that of providing more space and better physical conditions in 
general for teachers and pupils. Superintendents have often 
urged the establishing of junior high schools because thereby con- 
gestion would be relieved. The public, meanwhile, has been under 
the impression that it was receiving something brand new in edu- 
cational administration. 

3. STATISTICAL FINDINGS NOT EQUALLY APPLICABLE TO 
ALL SECTIONS 

In all discussions of this kind, it should be kept in mind that 
many of the indictments brought against the schools do not apply 
to our own section in the same measure as they apply to other 
sections of the United States. Usually statistics that are pre- 
sented are for the country taken as a whole, while educational 
conditions in some states are not at all the same as in other states. 
And, again, the statistics presented are usually several years old, 
and do not describe present conditions. It should also be kept in 
mind that events occurring simultaneously are not always casually 



— 23 — 

related. For example, the remarkable increase in high school en- 
rollment in some localities may be due to the junior high school 
movement, but it is very plain that such is not the case in other 
localities. 

4. THE ESSENTIAL POINT OF CONTENTION 

The essential point of contention between the proponents and 
opponents of the junior high school seems to be whether sharp 
differentiation on vocational lines should begin as early as the 
seventh school year. 



ly. ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

I. CLASSIFICATION OF PUPILS AND GRADES INCLUDED 

The grouping of grades in junior high schools varies with 
local conditions. The buildings frequently determine almost 
wholly the grades included. The general tendency, however, is 
to feel that the seventh grade should be the first year of the junior 
high school, corresponding roughly with the twelfth year of age 
in a child who has made normal progress through school. 

The following table, taken from the Fifteenth Yearbook of the 
National Society for the Study of Education, shows the grade 
grouping found by Douglass in his investigation : 

Grades No. of Systems Grades No. of Systems 

5—7 • I (>— ^ lo 

5—8 '.... I 8 3 

6—7 I 9 I 

6—8 II 8—9 8 

7—8 77 7— lo 7 

7—9 64 

Douglass suggests further that out of twenty-two junior high 
schools about to be organized sixteen wall include gtades 7 — 9. 

The above table shows that the prevailing tendency is to favor 
grades seven and eight and grades seven to nine, inclusive. Of 
the schools recently organized a majority show a tendency to in- 
clude the ninth grade in the organization. This practice has the 
support of a large number of psychologists who feel that the age 
of twelve marks the beginning of the period of transition in a 
normal child and fifteen marks its close. The prevalence of the 
7 — 8 grouping among the schools indicates that the earlier junior 
high schools grew out of grammar schools and were housed in 
elementary school buildings rather than in buildings of a more 
highly speciahzed type. 

A second point to be considered is that of buildings. The in- 
vestigation made by the Massachusetts School Masters' Club 
showed that out of 150 places reporting junior high schools 



— 20 — 

seventy-seven had the organizations housed in buildings with 
other school work. Eighty-nine cities reported separate prin- 
cipals for their junior high schools. In sixty-one cities the junior 
high school principal had other supervisory duties. 

Segregation of sexes in the junior high schools is practiced to 
some degree. Douglass found that twenty out of eighty-five re- 
porting on this point had segregation of sexes in classes. 

2. EXTRAXCE REQUIREMENTS _ 

The entrance requirements of junior high schools investigated 
seem to be rather uniform. The majority provide for the com- 
pletion of the regular work in the sixth grade, while some re- 
quire passing grades only in what they designate the essentials in 
arithmetic, history, and English. In some instances, however, 
age is the determining factor, while general ability, as judged by a 
teacher or principal, is another ^criterion. The investigations 
made on this point indicate that for the most part a satisfactory 
completion of the first six grades will constitute a compliance with 
the entrance requirements of the ordinary junior high school. 

3. METHODS OF PROMOTIOX 

It seems fairly well agreed that students in the junior high 
school should be advanced in accordance with the subjects covered, 
and this, in the opinion of Superintendent Spaulding, would allow 
pupils in the three years to specialize in the intermediate school 
and be prepared to carry it out in high school. 

One of the advantages mentioned for organizing a junior high 
school at Hudson, Ohio, was that a pupil who failed in arithmetic 
would not be required to take all subjects again but would be 
passed and take only arithmetic again. Lewiston, Idaho, requires 
twenty-four credits for graduation, each credit representing a 
year's work; nine of the twenty-four must be in required subjects, 
as English, mathematics, and history, three may be in subsidiary 
work, as band, orchestra, glee club, chorus, dramatic club, gym- 
nasium work, parliamentary law, etc. 

]Mt. \'ernon, Indiana, reports that no electives are permitted in 
grade seven, with the exception of industrial work. If pupils 



— 26 — 

make an average grade of eighty-seven in 7-B they are allov^ed to 
elect other subjects than industrial work in 7- A, as all essentials 
in English, arithmetic, and history are covered when the pupil has 
reached 7- A. As soon as he has made eighty-seven for two suc- 
ceeding semesters in either one or all the subjects indicated he is 
allowed to elect Latin, German, algebra, or industrial history in 
the succeeding half year, provided his parents wish it. If he does 
not make eighty-seven he is required to continue work in those 
subjects, the course of study being so organized that additional 
practical work is furnished for the pupil who fails to make the 
minimum grade. All regular eighth grade subjects are offered 
both in 8-B and 8-A for those failing to make the minimum grade 
which permits them to elect high school subjects. Courses in 
Latin, German, algebra, and industrial history are offered and full 
high school credit is given for regular high school subjects. 

The Massachusetts High School Masters' Club found that only 
twenty-eight schools out of 150 investigated did not promote by 
subject. Sixty of these schools had annual promotions, while a 
greater number, eighty-six, provided for semi-annual promotions, 
thus reducing the unit to a half-year instead of a year subject. 

4. DEPARTMENTAL INSTRUCTION 

Whatever may be said for departmental instruction as used in 
the high school may be asserted with equal assurance when ap- 
plied to the junior high school. Certain undesired results which 
were feared on account of the immaturity and inexperience of the 
pupils have not been forthcoming, particularly in schools where 
carefully planned student advisory systems have been in operation. 
Fully prepared teachers, specialists in their departments, recita- 
tion periods of ample length, supervised study hours, are as es- 
sential in the junior high school as in the grades beyond. 

Departmental instruction frees the child from the routine of 
lower grade organization which at this age becomes tedious and 
uninteresting. It affords a new and inspiring type of recitation 
in which spontaneity of thought and study are encouraged, and 
develops the capacity to choose and act independently. The spirit 
of the class room, the assembly and the social life, with its increase 



— 27-^ 

of self-directed activity is well adapted to inspire co-operation. 
This eliminates many of the disciplinary problems peculiar to these 
grades and has a tendency to prolong the school life of the over- 
age pupil. 

With one exception the 150 junior high schools reporting to the 
Massachusetts High School Masters' Club had departmental teach- 
ing and that one reported departmental teaching ''in part.'' It 
may be inferred from this that departmental teaching is an integral 
part of the junior high school movement. 

5. THE STUDENT ADVISOR ,,-.^^ 

The student advisory idea as applied to the junior high school ^ 
contemplates the assignment to each teacher of a relatively small 
group of pupils for whose educational, social, and physical welfare 
she is directly responsible. The plan is designed to meet certain 
problems arising in this type of organization, with pupils of thisy 
age. The lack of close personal contact with pupils is one of the 
weakest points of the junior high school plan. 

The pupil on entering the junior high school passes from an 
environment in which all of his activities are directed by one 
teacher into one in which he comes under the guidance of five or 
more each day. Each of these teachers is absorbed in the progress 
within her own department and may easily become oblivious to 
the demands made upon the pupils' time and strength by other 
teachers. Something more than so-called close supervision is 
necessary in order to make the child's school day a well ordered, 
logically arranged whole. \The advisor, interposed between the 
pupil and his instructors, becomes familiar with the content and 
extent of the pupil's program and sees that it is properly arranged 
and well carried out. Weaknesses carried up from the grades are 
discovered, causes of failure are investigated and removed, and so 
far as it is possible there is secured a normal adjustment between 
the pupil and the educational forces operating in his life. 

It is to be borne in mind also that the child of junior high school 
age has reached a critical stage in his mental and ph3-sical de- 
velopment. It is the age of diffidence, unattractiveness, reticence, 
sensitiveness, of misunderstandings, and heartaches. 



' — 28 — 

In the mechanics of departmental instruction, after the home- 
like atmosphere of the grades, the child feels lost amid conditions 
of which he does not feel himself a part, and whose application to 
his own life he does not understand. It is the function of the 
student advisor to meet this condition. Possessing a mature un- 
derstanding of adolescent life, filHng a place midway between that 
of chum and of parent, she seeks to set up a cordial relation be- 
tween the pupil and his surroundings, his teachers, and his as- 
sociates. 

The function of the student advisor is also exercised in the field 
of vocational guidance. The discovery of vocational tendencies 
and the provision of an opportunity to develop them seems to be 
the rational means of keeping children of this age interested in 
school work. The student advisor has gained a thorough knowl- 
edge of the child's natural aptitudes, his home influences, and his 
hereditary tendencies. She is thus able to encourage the first 
suggestions of a trend toward a life work, and to assist in crystal- 
izing the school life about this as a motive. The student advisor 
thus touches every phase of the child's life and becomes a vital 
factor in shaping his educational career. 

6. SUPERVISED STUDY 

The closeness with which pupils are supervised during study 
hours varies through the three years of the junior high school. 
The essential thing is that when the pupil passes into high school 
he shall have become self-reliant and consistent in his methods of 
attacking and mastering a lesson. These two or three years of 
training in the proper habits of reading and study constitute one 
of the most practical phases of junior high school work. 

The following table taken from Douglass shows the prevailing 
practice in junior high schools covering length of period also : 

U se of Supervised Study and Division of Class Periods in One\ 
Hundred and Forty-nine Schools 

Period, minutes. .. .20 25 30 35 40 42 45 48 50 55 6oG^;Jn Toti. 

Number of schools. .1 i 26 4 64 2 18 i 9 i 19 3 149 

Supervised study ... i .. 8 2 23 2 10 i 9 i 19 3 81 

No supervised study .... 4 i 5.. i 11 

Not answering i 14 i 36 . . 7 58 



— 29 — 

Of 143 school systems reporting to the ^Massachusetts High 
School ^Masters' Club 107 reported supervised study, sixteen 
"partial,'' one "some," and nineteen no supervised study. 

7. RECOGXITIOX OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFEREXCES 

Briggs has defined the junior high school as "an organization of 
grades seven and eight or seven to nine to provide various means 
for individual differences, especially by an earlier introduction of 
prevocational work and of subjects usually taught in the high 
school." If a definition that has attracted as much attention as 
the above is based upon the recognition of individual dift'erences 
it is the province of this report to note especially the means used 
to further that end. 

Promotion by subject is perhaps the oldest. Of 150 cities re- 
porting to the 3Jassachusetts High School ]\Iasters' Club twenty- 
eight reported that they did not promote by subject and three that 
they promoted by subject "in part." The other cities, numbering 
119, reported promotion by subject wholly. This means that 
different rates of progress are provided for as in the regular high 
school organization. 

A second provision and one more far reaching is a reasonable 
latitude in the selection of individual subjects or courses. Doug- 
lass' study of this is the latest. His data is presented below. 



30 



Existing Junior High School Curricula, Showing the Subjects 
Offered and the Niimher of Schools Oifering Each Subject • 















11 


It 


n 


It 


is 


is 


21 


o--g 


21 


oz 


^& 


o§ 


x: <u 


j= ^ 


£ s^ 


x; * 


ro^ 


rw 


sa 


oSW 


■&Q^ 


^W 



No. of schools reporting. 



75 



75 



31 






English 

Reading 

Grammar 

Spelling 

Penmanship 

English (Gr. Sp. Pen.) 



53 
17 
19 
31 
35 
14 



57 
13 
15 
25 
25 
12 



8 31 



2 

I 3 

7 



History 

Civics 

History and Civics 

Geography 

History and Geography. . . 
History, Civics, and Geog. 
Civics and Geography. . . . 



51 
8 

4 

51 

7 

I 

2 



51 
17 
14 
17 
5 
I 



4 16 

3 I 

I I 

I I 



Mathematics 
Algebra . . . 
iVrithmetic . 



10 
I 

65 



12 I 

9 9 

49 4 



3 

12 

2 



General Science 

Agriculture 

Physiography 

Biology (Botany and Zoo.) 



II 



13 
4 
I 



10 

7 



12 
3 
5 
3 



bjD 



Latin . . 
German 
Spanish 
Erench . 
Swedish 
Italian . 



15 

28 

6 

9 
I 
I 



27 

39 

8 

9 
I 



26 

26 

5 

5 

I 

I 



Physiology 

Hygiene 

Physical Training 



13 
13 

26 



15 3 2 3 
II 2 I I 

26 4 10 3 



31 



11 


1^> 


11 


St 


11 


<u 

1^ 


a 3 


Or, 


a 5 


Or, 


O 3 


Or, 


^s- 


.ca^ 


x:S- 


^^ 


.nn? 


x:- 


ret: 


ruj 


SQ^ 


00 UJ 


^a: 


^W 



No. of schools reporting .... 75 



75 



Fine Arts 5 

Music 45 

Drawing 31 

Freehand Drawing 2 



10 
10 



6 

35 



7 
19 

13 



31 



14 
6 
6 



Industrial Arts 4 4 

Manual Training 30 23 

Survey of Vocations 

Industrial Science 2 

Industrial History 

Printing 2 

Metal Work , 

Domestic Science and Art. . . 30 24 

Interior Decoration i 

Dressmaking 

Design 

Mechanical Drawing i 3 



3 

25 



25 



4 
32 



2 
2 
I 

32 
I 

I 

6 



5 

19 
I 

I 
2 

19 
I 
I 



Typewriting 

Com. or Ind. Arithmetic. . . . 
Com. or Ind. Geography. . . . 

Shorthand 

Business Practice 

Commercial English 

Bookkeeping 

Commercial Law 



10 

I 

4 

I 

14 



6 

II 

5 

5 



Another method of recognizing individual differences is that of 
requiring a maximum amount of w^ork of the slower pupils in a 
required subject and a minimum amount of the brighter ones. 
One school recently organized covers in 7-B English the essential 
points formerly covered in 7-B and 7-A in that subject. About 
25 per cent of the best students are then excused from 7-A 
English, which repeats essentially the work of 7-B. On the other 
hand, a child not able to do the work required in the regular class 



— 32-— 

periods is required to take one or two periods a week extra. This 
same school uses a similar device in mathematics. 

Another device is that of slow and rapid groups. Pupils are 
sectioned on the basis of ability, the brig-hter ones being permitted 
to cover a given amount of work in less time than the slower ones 
require. 

Still another method is the segregation of sexes in classes. This 
permits the work to be so organized that teachers may take full 
advantage of the different tastes and tendencies of boys and girls. 
A special type of mathematics, English, and elementary science 
may thus be developed. 

8. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 

The social activities of the junior high school are little discussed 
in the literature available. This is doubtless due to a lack of de- 
velopment of such activities in the junior high schools. There are 
occasionally music clubs, such as bands, orchestras, or glee clubs 
under the supervision of teachers. Athletics consisting of regular 
gymnasium work, tennis, football, basketball, baseball, and track 
work under the direction of a physical director or coach, exist in 
some schools, though the general tendency is for ninth grade boys 
to play on senior high school teams. Rivalry in these sports is 
confined for the most part to inter-class games. A few schools 
report literary clubs that recognize debating, dramatic, and ora- 
torical ability, and seek to develop that ability under the direction 
of a teacher. Sometimes provision is made for a party each year 
supervised by a teacher. Segregated clubs are also organized in 
some schools for pupils of this age. 

9. ADJUSTING TO EXISTING SYSTEMS 

The introduction of a junior high school organization into a 
school system well established is no easy task. Frequently a 
building that is at all adequate for the work is lacking. The ques- 
tion of administration is another equally perplexing one. There 
are three possibilities of solving the building problem : A highly 
specialized junior high school building erected primarily for junior 
high school work, an elementary school building, or a building 



— 33 — 

already used for high school work. Of the 150 systems reporting 
junior high schools to the Massachusetts High School Masters' 
Club but seventy-seven places had separate buildings ; the others 
housed their pupils in existing high school buildings or in ele- 
mentary school buildings. Bingaman found that among ninety- 
three places reporting junior high schools, thirty-six were housed 
with elementary schools, thirty-one with high schools, and twenty- 
six in separate buildings. In eighty-nine of the 150 places re- 
porting to the Massachusetts High School Masters' Club there are 
separate principals for the junior high school; in the other places 
the junior high school principal has other administrative duties. 

The selection of the teaching staff of a junior high school pre- 
sents a very real difficulty. The methods of teaching junior high 
school subjects are different from those of the high school above 
or of the grades below, A wise compromise between these two 
methods should be sought. Probably the best equipped teacher 
for junior high school w^ork is one who has a college education 
with elementary school teaching experience. But there are few 
of these in any one school system. The next best and the one 
recommended for schools in general is the selecting of experienced 
grade teachers with their more intimate knowledge of seventh and 
eight grade pupils. Principal James M. Blass, of the Washing- 
ton Junior High School, Rochester, New York, is very emphatic 
in his report in the proceedings of the fifty-second convocation of 
the University of the State of New York on this point. This is 
also the best w^ay to adjust this new organization to a school sys- 
tem in which the tenure of office of the teachers is fairly perma- 
nent. Meanwhile the normal schools and the colleges are putting 
forth every effort to give courses for teachers of junior high school 
subjects so that ultimately w^e may expect specific training for this 
work in our teaching corps. 



V. THE CURRICULUM OF THE JUNIOR HIGH 
SCHOOL 

In arranging- a curriculum the superintendent or principal is 
face to face with the most difficult but yet the most important prob- 
lem involved in the establishment of a junior high school. At 
present we find many different types of curricula offered and still 
a larger variety advocated. The course of study depends upon 
the aims not only of the junior high school but also upon those of 
the complete educational system. The broad purpose of public 
education is to promote social efficiency. Social efficiency in- 
cludes physical, civic, moral, aesthetic, religious, cultured, and eco- 
nomic ends. The educator cannot afford to take a one sided view. 
He must not build his course around the civic or the physical or 
any of the other divisions else it will be t#o narrow and suited to 
prepare for but one side of the child's life. 

I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF COURSES IN JUNIOR HIGH 

SCHOOLS 

From a study of the different courses offered in the various 
junior high schools already established, we may enumerate certain 
common characteristics that seem to distinguish these courses from 
those offered in the regular school system. First, there is a de- 
cided tendency to have the cornmunity activities determine the real 
basis of instruction. In some instances, most things in the course 
of study center around agriculture or commerce or industrial life. 
''Centers of interest" are thus developed to motivate and vitalize 
the various subjects studied during these years, with the idea of 
reaching a larger number of children, of holding these children in 
school for a longer period, and for preparing them in a practical 
way for the activities of life. These courses correspond some- 
what closely to the prevocational courses offered in certain sys- 
tems. Second, most junior high schools attempt tO' meet the indi- 
vidual differences of pupils in a more effective manner than has 
prevailed in the regular system. This is done by allowing freer 
election between courses and subjects, by promoting by subjects 
rather than years, by departmentalized teaching, by the inaugura- 



— 35 — 

tion of a system of student counselors, and by devices to indi- 
vidualize the instruction in the class room. Sometimes these 
devices are to adjust the assignment to- the capacities of the 
student, and sometimes to discover and direct these capacities in 
such a way that they may complete the regular course of study. 

A third common characteristic of junior high schools is the 
larger freedom in discipline. There is a feeling that certain 
children do not need the rigid discipline that now prevails in the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth years. More attention is given to the 
development of student body activities, such as literary societies, 
debating clubs, athletic associations and teams. Again, in a num- 
ber of junior high schools a course is especially designed for child- 
ren that are anxious to gain a year's time by beginning their high 
school studies earlier. The junior high school course is a pre- 
high school course that shortens the years of attendance in the 
public school system from twelve to^ eleven or even ten years. Few 
junior high schools offer vocational courses of a specific nature. 
This is possible only in very large cities and is not desirable even 
in such cities for children under fourteen or fifteen years of age, 
as children of these ages do not have permanent career motives 
that can be relied upon in establishing a course. 

2. NUMBER OF CURRICULA 

In very large cities the school system may have enough children 
in grades seven, eight, and nine to warrant the maintenance of 
four or five curricula. But most communities cannot afford to 
maintain more than one or two courses. In general we may say 
that the two most common courses are (a) a two or three-year 
course leading toward occupational life, and (b) a course of the 
same length leading toward the high school. The junior high 
schools of Los Angeles maintained, in 1916, six courses or cur- 
ricula. The per cent of the total enrollment in each of these 
courses was as follows : 



— 36 — 

Per Cent of Total 
Courses Offered Enrollment in Course 

a. Literary-Scientific 56.0 per cent 

b. Commercial 16. i per cent 

c. General Elective 1 1.7 per cent 

d. Home Economics 7.8 per cent 

e. Engineering Preparatory 5.3 per cent 

f. Mechanical Arts 3.1 per cent 

This means that over half the children were in the regular 
literary scientific course, and that nearly twelve per cent (11.7) 
additional were in the general elective course. These two courses 
were very similar except for the free election in the second. In a 
town with 1,000 children attending junior high school there would 
be, on the basis of these figures, only thirty-one in the mechanical 
arts course, fifty-three in the engineering preparatory course, and 
seventy-eight in the home economics course. It is evident from 
these figures that small communities can scarcely afford to main- 
tain more than two or three curricula and that the two most com- 
monly demanded would probably be the general elective and the 
literary-scientific courses. 

Douglass, in the Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Society 
for the Study of Education, gives several types of curricula com- 
monly found in junior high schools. One type is made up of 
common branches, with no elections until the ninth year. In the 
ninth year, a student is given a choice similar to what the average 
high school freshman has. A second type introduces manual 
training, domestic science, and foreign language in the seventh 
and eighth grades. Another type provides several different cur- 
ricula and frequently involves segregation by sexes. This type of 
organization is possible in large cities. The fourth type is of a 
prevocational nature. The most interesting example of this is 
the Ettinger plan used in New York City. Under this plan 
children are divided in the seventh and 'eighth grades between the 
regular academic and industrial work, certain children pursuing 
the first course and others pursuing the second. Children in the 
industrial group are divided into sections for woodwork, machine 
making, millinery, pasting novelty work, power machine operat- 



— 37 — 

ing, etc. The children are then rotated for nine weeks in each 
shop. It is the purpose of this plan to discover marked aptitudes 
and efficiencies, or in other words, to give vocational and educa- 
tional guidance through rotating the industrial classes. 

3. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS OFFERING ONE CURRICULUM 

One curriculum is offered in Sante Fe, Xew [Mexico; Spring- 
field, Illinois ; Alt. Vernon, Indiana ; San Francisco, Cahfornia ; 
Rochester, Minnesota ; Grand Rapids, Alichigan, and the Univer- 
sity High School of the State University of Iowa. 

The course offered in Sante Fe, New Alexico, is as follows : 

Grade 7. Required : English, 5 ; mathematics, 5 ; history, 3 ; 
civil government, 2 ; geography, 3 ; physiology, 2 ; fine arts, 3 ; 
music, 2 ; household arts, 2 ; industrial arts, 2 ; Spanish, 2. 

Grade 8. Required : English, 5 ; mathematics, 5 ; history, 3 ; 
civics, 2 ; general science, 3 ; fine arts, 3 ; music, 2 ; household arts, 
5 ; industrial arts, 5 ; Spanish, 2. 

Grade 9. Required: EngHsh, 5 ; algebra, 5. Elective: Latin, 
5 ; Spanish 5 ; first year science, 5 ; industrial arts, 5 ; household 
arts, 5 ; freehand, 3 ; machanical drawing, 3 ; music, 2. 

It will be noticed in the seventh and eighth grades of this course 
the student is required to attend classes twenty-nine periods a 
week, and that no electives are allowed. This is rather a heavy 
course although a decided improvement over the work usually 
oft"ered in the seventh and eighth grades. It requires Spanish in 
the seventh and eighth grades two hours a week, which would 
probably not be practicable in northern and eastern cities. In the 
ninth grade of this course, English and algebra are required. 
]\Iany educators doubt the advisability of requiring mathematics 
in the ninth year. History, science, and practical arts have greater 
social value. 

In Springfield, Illinois, the work in grades seven and eight is 
practically the same as is found in seventh and eighth grades 
throughout the country, with the exception that the child is al- 
lowed to choose between German and industrial work. In the 
ninth grade, English, algebra, music, and drawing- are required. 
Again the question arises, should algebra be required? 



38 — 



Grade 7. Required : English ( reading, literature, grammar, 
spelling, penmanship), arithmetic, geography (one-half year), 
United States history (one-half year), physiology (one-half year), 
music, drawing, industrial work. Electives (choose one) : Ger- 
man, industrial work. 

Grade 8. Same as grade 7. 

Grade 9. Required : English, algebra, music, drawing. Elec- 
tive : Latin, German, ancient history, general science, commercial 
arithmetic, industrial work. 

The course in the seventh and eighth grades in the Garfield 
Junior High School in Richmond, Indiana, is as follows : 

Garfield Junior High School, Richmond, Indiana, Course of Study 



7-B TERM u fe 

Required work : ^"^ ^ | 

Subjects X^ UH 

EngUsh 8 1.6 

Arithmetic 5 i.o 

Geography 5 i.o 

Music . . . . : 2 .4 

Drawing i .2 

Woodwork or sewing 2 .4 

Physical training .... 2 .4 
Elective, choose one : 

Latin 5 1.0 

German 5 1.0 

English composition. . 5 1.0 

Industrial work 5 1.0 

7-A TERM 

Required work : 

English 8 1.6 

Physiology 5 1.0 

History 5 1.0 

Music 2 .4 

Drawing 2 .4 

Woodwork or sewing 2 .4 

Physical training . . . . i .2 



8-B TERM 






Required work : 

Subjects 

English 8 

Arithmetic 5 

History 5 

Music 2 

Drawing 2 

Woodwork or sewing 2 

Physical training .... i 
Elective, choose one : 

Latin 5 

German 5 

English composition. . 5 

Industrial work 5 

8-A TERM 

Required work : 

English 8 

xA.rithmetic 5 

Civics 5 

Music 2 

Drawing 2 

Woodwork or cooking 2 

Physical training .... i 



1.6 
1,0 
1.0 
4 
•4 
•4 
.2 

1.0 
1.0 
1.0 
1.0 



1.6 
1.0 
1.0 
•4 
•4 
•4 
.2 



39 



Electives, choose one: </> ^ - Electives, choose one: y,^ .^ 

Subjects x^ UH Subjects x| UH 

Latin 5 i.o Latin 5 i.o 

German 5 1.0 German 5 1.0 

English composition. . 5 1.0 EngHsh composition. . 5 1.0 

Industrial work 5 1.0 Industrial work 5 1.0 

Time schedule. — The hours are fifty minutes each. The time 
scheduled for the different subjects includes the time spent in 
preparation in school. 

Credits. — Twenty-two credits are required for promotion to 
high school. A pupil must not be back two credits in any one 
subject. 

English. — Under this head are included reading, grammar, 
composition, spelling, and penmanship. Five of the eight hours 
scheduled for the subject are given to recitation work, and, in 
addition to the three hours in school for preparation, some home 
work is usually necessary. 

Latin and German. — Two high school credits are given for the 
work in these subjects in Garfield, and pupils who have also taken 
the German work in Hibberd, or its equivalent, receive three. No 
pupils are admitted to Latin and German classes unless their work 
has been strong in the preceding grade, and all their work must 
be kept up to a high standard or they are required to change. 

Industrial work. — There is no attempt to teach trades, but 
merely to give pupils some experience that will enable them to 
choose an occupation more intelligently. The work is also found 
to give an added zest to school life for many boys and girls who 
show little interest in the academic studies. 

In Rochester, IMinnesota, the course of study in the junior high 
school is as follows : 

Grade 7. Required : English, 5 ; arithmetic, 5 ; x\merican his- 
tory, 5. Elective : German, 5 ; chorus, 5 ; calisthenics, 4; domestic 
art, 5 ; shop, 5 ; arts and crafts, 5 ; domestic science, 5 ; military 
drill, 3. 

Grade 8. Required : English, 5 ; geography, 5 ; penmanship 
and spelling, 5. Elective : Same as grade 7, with bookkeeping, 5 ; 
mechanical drawing, 5, and agriculture, 5, in addition. 



— 40 — 

Grade 9. Required : English, 5 ; community civics, 5 ; general 
science, 5; mathematics (elementary algebra), 5. Elective: 
Same as grade 8, with business law, 5 ; industrial history, 5 ; Latin, 
5, and poultry and gardening, 5, in addition. 

The question may be raised, why is science not required in the 
seventh grade? And again, why is mathematics required in the 
ninth grade? On the whole the committee believes that this 
course is an improvement over the one used in Sante Fe, New 
Mexico. 

In Duluth, Minnesota, as in a number of other cities, one cur- 
riculum is required for grades seven and eight, and three or four 
curricula are offered beginning with grade nine. This corre- 
sponds closely with the usual organization. In Trenton, New 
Jersey, for example, one curriculum is required for grades seven 
and eight and three curricula (a) academic, (b) commercial, and 
(c) industrial, beginning with 'grade nine. Each day consists of 
six periods of sixty minutes each. The aim is more broadly edu- 
cational than vocational or prevocational. 

In Norwalk, Connecticut, three courses are offered beginning 
with the seventh grade: (a) academic, (b) commercial, and (c) 
manual arts. Beginning with the ninth year, the commercial 
curriculum is divided into (i) a clerical, and (2) a commercial; 
and the manual arts into (i) a general and (2) a shorter curri- 
culum. 

In the Wisconsin High School in Madison, one curriculum is 
offered in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. 

Grade 7. Required : English, 5 ; mathematics, 5 ; geography and 
general science, 5 ; music, physical education. Electives : Ger- 
man, 5 ; French, 5 ; manual arts, 5 ; domestic science, 5 ; domestic 
art, 5 ; drawing, 3. 

Grade 8. Required : English, 5 ; mathematics, 5 ; history and 
citizenship, 5 ; music, physical education. Electives : General 
science, 5 ; German, 5 ; Latin, 5 ; French, 5 ; manual arts, 5 ; do- 
mestic science, 5 ; domestic art, 5 ; drawing, 5. 

Grade 9. Required. English, 5 ; music, physical education. 
Electives : Mathematics, 5 ; general geography, 5 ; agriculture, 5 ; 



— 41 — 

ancient history, 5 ; German, 5 ; Latin, 5 ; French, 5 ; manual arts, 
5 ; domestic art, 5 ; drawing, 3. 

The course of study in the University High School, State Uni- 
versity of Iowa, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades is as 
follows : 

Grade 7. First semester. Required : History, 5 ; science, 3 ; 
English, 5 ; mathematics, 4 ; art, 2 ; music, i ; manual training, 4 ; 
home economics, 4 ; physical training, 2. Second semester. Re- 
quired : History, 5 ; science, 3 ; English, 5 ; mathematics, 4 ; art, 
2 ; music, i ; manual training, 4 ; home economics, 4 ; physical 
training, 2. 

Grade 8. First semester. Required : Same as first semester of 
grade 7. Second semester. Required : Same as second semester 
of grade 7. 

Grade 9. First semester. Required : English, 5 ; history, 5 ; 
music, I ; physical training, 2. Electives : Science, 5 ; mathe- 
matics, 5 ; French, 5 ; Spanish, 5 ; German, 5 ; Latin, 5 ; manual 
training, 4 ; home economics, 4 ; art, 2. Second semester. Re- 
quired : English, 5 ; history, 5 ; music, i ; physical training, 2. 
Electives : Science, 5 ; mathematics, 5 ; French, Spanish, 5 ; Ger- 
man, 5 ; Latin, 5 ; manual training, 4 ; home economics, 4 ; art, 2. 

The committee believes that for Iowa conditions one curriculum 
with few electives is better than many curricula or one with wide 
elections. The period of general education does not end with the 
completion of the sixth grade at the early age of twelve. Children 
thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years old still have many needs in 
common, and one curriculum designed to meet these needs is the 
most economic and eft'ective means of realizing the desired end. 
The curriculum in the L'niversity High School is so designed as to 
oft'er the essentials in English, science, mathematics, history, 
aesthetic and practical arts. This course is for all because all need 
these things. Necessarily, many problems in the organization 
and arrangement of subject matter remain to be settled by the 
teacher when she confronts her class. But in general the common 
need is met by such a curriculum. 



VL QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 

It is conceded by all who have given careful attention to the 
subject that the ablest teachers should be secured for the junior 
high school. When introducing a plan of school organization 
which throws so much emphasis upon the socializing of school 
life only teachers of high scholarship, wide experience, and 
proven ability should be employed. This period in the child's 
life is a very critical one and maturity in the teacher, poise, good 
scholarship, judgment, and above all reasonable sympathy with 
the problem of adolescent life may save many pupils. 

We believe that the teacher in the new junior high school should 
be a graduate of at least a two-year normal course in addition to 
a four-year high school course. Additional collegiate training, 
especially along the line of the particular branch which the teacher 
is to teach, will be of great value. 

We also believe that at least two years of successful experience 
in teaching is just as necessary a requirement as educational quali- 
fications. We put stress on the matter of training in teaching 
because the child at this age is most difficult for the inexperienced 
teacher to reach. It will also be found that the best results in 
interest and development are secured when the teaching force is 
made up of about twenty-five to forty per cent men. The boy at 
this age should feel the man's presence and influence and many 
valuable lessons will be learned if the right type of man is brought 
into close contact with the students of the junior high school. 
This is sometimes the only close acquaintance which the junior 
high school girl forms with men before going to work in the busi- 
ness world. 



VII. COST: BUILDING, EQUIPMENT, INSTRUCTION 

In advancing the public interest of any community one of the 
important questions which seem to arise is, "What will the instal- 
lation of the new idea or system cost?" Another is, whether or 
not the increased cost involved is in reality an economic saving of 
the time and energy of the parties concerned. 

The American people are not only guilty of waste in the use of 
material products of the country, but grossly guilty of waste in 
human energy. Professor James contends that if all human 
energy could be directed towards the most economic production 
the efficiency of the human race would be doubled immediately. 
The public schools of Iowa, and in fact of the United States, have 
not in the past used the time and energy of the young people to 
the greatest advantage in the production of an efficient citizen- 
ship. Educators are appraising themselves of this fact, and 
throughout the length and breadth of our vast domains there is 
now a cry coming from: the business world for a more efficient 
product from our public schools. The treadmill style and the 
repetition of the subject matter in our public schools must give 
way to an organization and courses of study which will make all 
of the energy expended by the child count directly for efficiency. 
The time which the school has been wasting must now be directed 
towards economizing and saving human energy. 

I. BUILDINGS 

It is not only necessary to have school buildings which are sani- 
tary, well heated, lighted, and ventilated, but the floor space must 
be such as to allow the organization, the course of study, and the 
instruction to be carried on at a minimum expense of time and 
energy. Many of the new modern high school buildings are being 
constructed with two assembly rooms, one for the junior high 
school and the other for the senior high school, with the proper 
recitation rooms, laboratories, shops, and cafeteria convenient to 
the assembly rooms. The gymnasium, swimming pool, athletic 
field, playgrounds, and school gardens are being so located as to 
be readily available to the student body. 



— 44 — 

It does not necessarily follow that because there are two as- 
sembly rooms that the floor space must be extensively increased 
over against that which was necessary in the older type of build- 
ing. In buildings not built especially for the junior-senior high 
school, the floor space which was formerly used by the seventh 
and eighth grades may be so changed as to make it the junior 
high school assembly room. The recitation rooms, laboratories, 
etc., of the senior high school may be used for the work of the 
junior high school. In a regularly planned junior high school the 
recitations are conducted in the recitation rooms or laboratories, 
thus leaving the assembly room for a study room. The best au- 
thorities advise that school buildings be specifically constructed 
for the organization of the junior high school. The junior- senior 
high school, when each department is small, should be placed in 
the same building. 

It is the opinion of school boards and superintendents who have 
attempted to supervise the remodeling of an old school building 
for a junior high school that it is a difficult matter to secure the 
proper floor space for the various departments which is necessary 
in the administration of such a high school. No one floor plan 
has been agreed upon as a basis for a junior-senior high school. 
Charles Hughes Johnson, in the November, 1916, American 
Schoolmaster, says : 

"The material plant has not been reduced to one type. Old 
buildings are being remodeled and new ones especially constructed 
for strictly junior high school purposes. These are being con- 
structed so as to emphasize flexibility in administering of instruc- 
tion, shop facilities for prevocational education of all varieties, 
physical education, general business fundamentals of both skill 
and information, concrete acquaintance with the world of fine 
arts and home arts, auditorium, and direct study facilities. 

"Floor space is given tO' shops, kitchens, cafeteria, printing 
equipment, laboratories, swimming pools, assembly rooms, junior 
high school libraries, and museums. In time there undoubtedly 
will be the junior high school architect. In addition to the ma- 
terial plant, properly laid out athletic fields, school gardens, and 
general playgrounds are being maintained. In fact, around the 



— 45 — 

junior high school is centered a community center spirit. The 
plants, as a whole, are directed in detail towards the development 
of every individual in the community for an enlarged service as a 
citizen. The greater the amount which any community pays for 
developing the intellectual power of the human race the greater 
will be the tendency to lessen the amount to be paid at the bar of 
justice, or in charitable institutions." 

2. EQUIPMENT 

The cry of the age is economy. It is probable that one of the 
greatest wastes in the public utilities comes from the fact that so 
much material investment in the pubHc schools is used only a few 
days in a month and only a few months in the year. The build- 
ings stand idle for several months in the summer without the 
people deriving any direct benefit from the money invested. This 
is even more true of the equipment of the school. In many schools 
the physics, chemistry, manual training, domestic science, and 
agriculture equipment are used generally not more than one period 
per day. This all depends upon the number of sections in the 
classes concerned. The plan of the junior high school is such 
that all of this equipment can be put into use among a larger num- 
ber of students and classes. The money invested in equipment 
should be the most productive by developing human energy and 
thus the equipment of any school should be available for the 
greatest possible number of students. In fact, it is more eco- 
nomical to keep the equipment in use than to have it rust or fall 
into disuse. The junior high school uses the same equipment, 
library, maps, and charts as used in the senior high school unless 
the junior high school is in a separate building. 

3. INSTRUCTION 

It is, in general, the opinion of superintendents, teachers, and 
school boards who have had experience with the junior high 
school that the building and equipment are not the greatest factors 
in solving the problem. 

In the junior high school it becomes necessary to increase the 
teaching force so as to get the most efficient and economical use of 



— 46 — 

the student's time. Individual differences are constantly given 
full consideration. At the same time the junior high school allows 
each teacher tO' give instruction in the subject in which he or she 
has specialized. Professor Judd, of the University of Chicago, 
says : "The effect on teachers and school officers will be as 
wholesome as the effect on the students. It is quite impossible to 
work out these changes ^ * >5^ completed in the organization 
of an intermediate school without showing the irrationality of all 
the harsh feelings and criticisms heretofore existing between the 
elementary and high school." Again, Professor Judd says : ''If 
you want tO' influence an adolescent in a larger way, you must 
begin at twelve, not fourteen." 

The teachers will be able to do away with needless duplication 
and repetition of subject matter. The discipline of the school 
is made easier since the physical activity of the pupil is taken 
into consideration. Commissioner Wood says : "Data submitted 
seem to show that the percentage of retardation in the inter- 
mediate school (junior high school) classes is decreasing." 

The nature of the organization of the junior high school will 
make a demand for more men to prepare themselves as supervisors 
for such schools. The curriculum will be focused more towards 
individual differences, and differentiation of subject matter, 
and supervised or directed study. The expert and special teacher 
will have more prominent places in the teaching corps. Every 
child will be allowed to move from subject to subject just as the 
ability concerned will permit. 

Better salaries will be paid teachers, a premium will be placed 
upon trained teachers, years of experience will be a consideration, 
and those who have sympathy and understanding of the youth will 
be selected. The junior high school will become so inviting that 
the boys and girls who are preparing themselves for a place in any 
of the present industries will find that a course in this school is 
offered to make them more efficient in their chosen profession. It 
is to be a school for democracy and not for aristocracy alone. 

From all questionnaries which have been sent out from time to 
time it has been discovered that school boards and superintendents 
are agreed that the junior high school demands more floor space, 



— 47 — 

better equipment, and more efficient teachers. It then follows 
that the cost of maintaining such a school is somewhat greater 
than that of maintaining the regular eight-four plan. Thomas H. 
Briggs submits the following conclusions : 

(a). In thirty cities investigated, seventeen said junior high 
schools cost more per capita (amount spent for maintenance and 
operation divided by average number of pupils attending) than 
the grades ; seven said cost was the same, and six quaUfied their 
answers. 

(b). Dr. Jessup, in the Los Angeles sun.^ey, found cost to be 
about fifty per cent more for the junior high school than for 
grades one to six. 

(c). Cost of instruction no doubt greater. 

(d). Cost of building and equipment varies with conditions 
under which the junior high school is organized. 

Superintendent J. O. Engleman, in University of Illinois Educa- 
tion Bulletin, No. 17, says: 

''Our junior high school, as organized at present, is costing us 
considerably more than it would cost to teach the same students 
in the ordinary elementary school. Indeed, the year ending June 
30, 1915, the per capita cost in our grades below the junior high 
was approximately $31.00; in the junior high it was $51.00, and 
in the high school, $71.00. We believe that the cost of the junior 
high as at present arranged is greater than it ought to be in spite 
of the advantages resulting from that type of organization. An 
effort wnll be made to conserve its present advantages and even 
materially increase and multiply them, and yet reduce the per 
capita cost. I think this vvall be possible." 

Thomas H. Briggs reports the following concerning the prep- 
aration of teachers for the junior high school : 

"But now teachers are in several Avays being especially pre- 
pared for the junior high school. At least one of the largest col- 
leges of education is offering courses leading to that end and 
several cities independently are developing their own teachers. 
Rochester, New York, for instance, in anticipation of four junior 
high schools, has offered weekly work in the several subjects that 
will be introduced ; for those successfully taking the course a 



— 48 — 

number of teachers for the new school will be selected. From 
1,528 teachers reported in an incomplete tabulation, as giving in- 
struction in the junior high school (1,189 ^^^^ time, 430 part 
time), 581 had previous experience in both elementary and 
secondary schools, 209 in secondary schools alone, and 642 
in elementary schools alone. This means that only six per 
cent of the teachers in the junior high school were with- 
out experience when they were selected. Nearly two-thirds 
of thig small number came directly from the colleges, and 
the remainder from normal schools. Although data concern- / 
ing the sex of the teachers were not required, it is obvious 
from the report that in the first years of the junior high school 
there is a considerably larger proportion of men than is found in 
the seventh and eighth grades of the grammar school." 

It is impossible to obtain from superintendents, school boards, 
or school surveys any definite figures as to exact cost of buildings, 
equipment, and instruction for the maintenance of the junior- 
senior high school over against the eight-four plan. However 
they are all agreed that the cost will be somewhat greater, but they 
are also agreed that the efficiency of the school is increased pro- 
portionally more than the cost. 



VIIL THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN IOWA 

In order to obtain information as to the status of the junior 
high school in Iowa the following questions were submitted to 
seventy-five superintendents of school systems, which there was 
some reason to believe include junior high schools : 

1. Have you a junior high school? 

2. If so, what grades are included? 

3. Is the work offered in seventh and eighth grades any dif- 
ferent from the work ordinarily offered in these grades? If so, 
how ? 

No attempt was made to define the term, but each superin- 
tendent was left free to compare his own organization with his 
concept of a junior high school. To these seventy-five letters 
forty-four replies were received. The forty-four cities replying, 
with their answers to the first question, were as follows : 

Albia ? Hampton No 

Algona No Independence ? 

Audubon No Iowa City ? 

Avoca ? Keokuk No 

Boone No Lake City No 

Carroll Will have ]\Iarion Yes 

Cedar Falls No Alarshalltown No 

Centerville No Alissouri Valley No 

Charles City No Muscatine No 

Clarion Yes Newton Yes 

Clinton Yes Oelwein No 

Corning ? Osage No 

Cresco No Oskaloosa No 

Creston No Ottumwa No 

Davenport Will have Perry No 

Denison No Reinbeck No 

Dubuque No Sigourney No 

Eldon No Stuart No 

Estherville No W^ashington No 

Ft. Dodge No Waterloo (East) Yes 

Ft. Madison .No West Liberty , No 

Grinnell No Winterset No 



— 50 — 

To this first question, ''Have you a junior high school?" thirty- 
two answered "no," five answered "y^s," and two announce that 
plans are being made for the organization of junior high schools 
in the near future. Five were not willing to commit themselves 
definitely to ''yes" or "no," but from answers to question three it 
appears that they have the customary seventh and eighth grade 
departmental work. 

Only those five schools reporting junior high schools need be 
considered with respect to the question of grades included in such 
organization. Clarion reports the seventh and eighth with the 
ninth to be included later probably. Clinton includes the eighth 
and ninth. Marion reports the seventh and eighth. Newton re- 
ports the seventh and eighth in the junior high and will include 
the ninth after this year. East Waterloo includes the seventh and 
eighth and will add the ninth next year. 

The difference between work of grades seven and eight in the 
junior high school and the work of the same grades under the 
departmental plan is not clear in some cases. Of the five 
reporting junior high schools, three mention emphasis placed on 
manual training and domestic science, two introduce general 
science, one begins Latin, one offers Spanish, one offers civics, 
and one oft'ers agriculture. Two mention a complete reorganiza- 
tion of seventh and eighth grade English, and two mention de- 
partmental work as features of their organization. 

Of the thirty-two who report no junior high school, fourteen 
naturally confine themselves to answering "no" to the first ques- 
tion. Seventeen, though, give some information as to the organ- 
ization of their seventh and eighth grades, and they all agree in 
reporting departmental work. Some report quite as wide a de- 
parture from what has been considered regular work for these 
grades as is made by some of the junior high schools. 

Only two cities — Newton and Davenport — report any plans 
under way for the special housing of the junior high. Newton 
has issued bonds and let the contract for a new junior high school 
building. However, the building will not be used exclusively for 
the junior high school but will offer some of its facilities to the 



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each difficulty was satisfactorily overcome. He discusses many 
beneficial results of the system in detail. 

Bunker, F. F., Reorganization of the Public School System. 
United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1916, No. 8. An 
excellent discussion of the development and present tendencies in 
reorganization of elementary and secondary education. 

Briggs, T. H., Commissioner of Education ; Report, 1914. Vol. 
I : Chapter VI. An excellent discussion of the junior high school, 
advantages and obstacles, number of in 1914, and curricula. 

Coulter, John G., Educational Administration and Supervision ; 
I 1639, 191 5. "Proposed Status of Science Instruction in the 
Junior-Senior Hig-h School Organization." Difficulties met in 
the "Committee of Ten" in organizing a unified course in science 
because of the sub-divisions of the committee. He discusses the 
term "General Science" and suggests a six-three-three plan for a 
probable solution of the science problem under five heads : ad- 
ministration, content, organization, method, and aim. 

Cox, Philip W. T., Educational Administration and Super- 
vision. January, 19 15. "The Solvay Junior High School." A 
concise statement of what the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade 
readjustment should be and a diagram showing how the plan 
works out in Solvay, New York. 

Davis, C. O., "Principles and Plans for Reorganizating Sec- 
ondary Education." In Johnston, C. F., High School Education, 
Chapter IV. A general discussion of the necessity for reorgan- 
ization, a bill of "indictments" against present system, plans for 
reorganization including six-six, and the six-year curriculum. 

Handbook of the Detroit Junior High Schools, 1916-1917. 
PubHshed by the board of education, 118 pages. 

Douglass, A. A,, "The Present Status of the Junior High 
School." Pedagogical Seminary. Vol. 22, 1905, pages 252-274. 
Recent progress in establishing- junior high schools. Covers 
grades included, entrance requirements, enrollment figures, re- 
quired and optional subjects in the course of study, vocational 
courses, attitude of patrons, students, teachers, colleges, and 
universities, weak points, and brief bibliography. 



— 54 — 

Douglass, A. A., 'The Junior High School." The Fifteenth 
Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 
Part III, 191 6, 157 pages. The most comprehensive treatment 
of the subject yet published. 

Fishback, E. H., ''Adapting the Work of the Seventh and 
Eighth Grades to the Needs of the Comm.unity." Educator- 
Journal 17:132, 1916. A discussion of present needs and to what 
extent a diversified course of study meets the needs of the com- 
munity. 

Foster, W. S., "Physiological Age as a Basis for Classification 
of Pupils P2ntering High School." Psychological Clinic, May, 
19 10, page 83. Shows how the efficiency of students was in- 
creased by such classification. A close relationship exists be- 
tween height and pubescence. 

Francis, J. H., "Needed Reorganizations and Expansions of 
the School System." Portland Survey, Chapter XL Wodd 
Book Co., 1915. One of the best discussions on the purposes, 
advantages, courses of study, cost, training, and experience of 
teachers and other features of the junior high schooh 

Fullerton, C. H., Columbus Junior High Schools, 1912. A 
little pamphlet of twenty-four pages published by the board of 
education giving an account of the development of junior high 
schools in that city, and of opinions and data collected from 
various reports on the junior high schools. 

Hall-Quest, A. L., Supervised Study. MacMillan Co., 1916. 
The best discussion of the entire problem of supervised study. 
Advocates divided period. Excellent bibliography. 

Harper, W. R., "The High School of the Future." School Re- 
view, Vol. H:!, 1903. The situation is outlined under definite 
heads : reasons for elementary school of six grades — reasons for 
high school of six years. Reasons against. 

Hughes, J. F., "The Essential Features of the Chanute Junior- 
Senior High School Plan and its Tangible Results." Educational 
Administration and Supervision, Vol. 1:167, 1915. A very 
"matter-of-fact" statement of the six-three-three plan in Chanute, 
telling exactly what subjects are taught and the benefits derived 
from the new plan. 



— 55 — 

Lewis, Ervin E., Standards for Measuring Junior High Schools. 
University of Iowa Extension Bulletin, No. 25. First Series, 
No. 6 (November 15, 1916). 

Johnston, Chas. H., University of Illinois, "The Junior High 
School." Educational Administration and Supervision ; Vol. 
II 413, 1916. The aims and purposes of the junior high school 
are defined. The broader meaning of this new democratic edu- 
cational scheme is discussed. 

Morrison, S. B. (and others). Report of the National Educa- 
tion Association, 1909, pages 498-503. Third report of the Com- 
mittee on Six-Year Course of Study. A summary of the progress 
in establishing six-year courses. Also a discussion of the growth 
of departmental teaching and high school subjects in grades seven 
and eight. 

Nightingale, Dr. A. F., Superintendent of Chicago High 
Schools. ''Results of Chicago's Experiment in Introducing Latin 
into the Seventh and Eighth Grades." School Review, Vol. 
VI 1379, 1898. Gives a brief sketch of the historical growth of 
language teaching, especially Latin. The difficulties encountered 
in its introduction in the seventh and eighth grades of Chicago 
were finally overcome and the results satisfactory. The article 
also gives methods of stimulation in the teaching of Latin in these 
grades. 

Park, F. R., Principal Cuba, New York, High School. Educa- 
tional Administration and Supervision, Vol. II '.4^6, 1916. 'The 
Six-and-Six Plan of Organization for the Small School." An 
explanation and summary of the good results due to the six-six 
plan and its peculiar adaptation to the conditions in the small 
school of New York state. 

Pittenger, B. F., "The Use of the Term 'Secondary' in Educa- 
tion." School Review, Vol. XXIV: February, 1916. An author- 
itative discussion of the changes in usage of the term "secondary" 
in American education. 

Prunty, M. C, "Factors Other than the Curriculum Determin- 
ing the Success of the Junior High School." American School 
Board Journal, June, 1916, pages 11-12. Calls attention to the 
psychological and sociological factors involved in the organiza- 
tion of a real junior high school. 



— 56 — 

Reinoehl, F. W., Some Fundamentals of the Junior High 
School Problem. A general article emphasizing the necessity of 
considering the junior high school as. more than an external re- 
arrangement of grades. Full of good suggestions. 

Report of Committee on the Junior High School presented to 
the High School Masters' Club of Massachusetts, March 17, 19 17. 
D. C. Heath & Co., 43 pages. 

Stacy, C. R., ''The Training of Teachers for Intermediate 
Schools." Educational Administration and Supervision, Vol. 
II 1448, 1916. A question of the college or normal school trained 
teacher or a combination of both — a question of sex and experi- 
ence. 

, Snedden, David, ''Reorganization of Education for Children 
from Twelve to Fourteen Years of Age.'' Educational Adminis- 
tration and Supervision, Vol. II: 1916, pages 425-433. An ex- 
cellent discussion of the ideal junior high school, enumerating 
seven special features. 

Stromquist, C. Eben, Wyoming School Journal, Vol. VII 1143, 
19 16. The article deals with the most fundamental principles for 
effective and successful correlation of mathematics in grades seven 
to ten. A suggestive course of study is given which is being 
worked out in the University High School of Wyoming. 

Taylor, E. H., "The Course in Mathematics in the Junior High 
School." Educational Administration and Supervision, Vol. 
II 460, 1 91 6. Indicates that the change from four to six-year 
high school should carry with it a change in the course in mathe- 
matics, founded on pedagogical principles rather than tradition. 
The suggestion of a blended course of arithmetic, algebra, and 
geometry for the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades is given. 

Weet, Herbert S., Superintendent Rochester Public Schools. 
"Rochester's Junior High Schools : A First Step in Establishing 
the Six-Three-Three Organization." Educational Administra- 
tion and Supervision, Vol. II 433, 1916. How Rochester met its 
junior high school problems, its final organization, the course of 
study adopted relative to requirements and electives is fully dis- 
cussed. Three reasons in defense of the Rochester junior high 
school plan are given. 



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